Israeli occupation forces surrounded a "wanted" man's house in the West Bank village of Dir Abu Da'if, east of Jenin, and also raided the nearby town of Qabatiya early on Saturday morning.

Palestinian security sources reported that Israeli forces besieged the house of Mohie Yaseen, an activist with the armed wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Brigades.

Witnesses said that Israeli forces approached the house from several directions, shooting in the air and deploying sonic bombs. The Israeli troops, using a public address system, ordered the residents out of the house.

The soldiers then searched the house and withdrew from the area, witnesses added. No arrests were made. Mohie Yaseen was reported to be not at home.

In Qabatiya, Israeli forces entered the city from the south, and patrolled the streets, erecting barriers at the main entrances of the town, local residents said. The soldiers left two hours later without making arrests.

The helicopter returned to Israel safely. There were new casualties, Israeli sources said.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abu Obeida, the Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson said, "This afternoon our anti-aircraft crew opened fire at an Israeli aircraft over north Gaza, we know that it was hit," said Abu Obeida

Abu Obeida said that Hamas fighters would continue to open fire on Israeli aircraft that fly over the Gaza Strip "with the continuously improving ammunitions and the more accurate weapons the fighters obtain."

"Ehud Barak's actions are those of a war criminal, one who should be tried in an international court for crimes against humanity," said Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) Secretary General Mustafa Barghouthi on Thursday.

Barghouthi, the former Palestinian information minister, dismissed a statement by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak that the killing of four Palestinians by an undercover Israeli forces in Bethlehem early on Wednesday evening, demonstrated Israel's commitment to "pursue and strike all killers with Jewish blood on their hands."

"Barak is directly responsible for the recent massacre of scores of Palestinian civilians, including 31 children, in the Gaza Strip. Now he is intensifying killings in the West Bank to provoke a reaction from armed Palestinian groups, in order to justify the massive violations of human rights and international law perpetrated against the Palestinian people under his orders," Barghouthi said.

Mohammad Shehada, Imad Al-Kamel, Issa Marzouk and Ahmad Balboul

were ambushed by an undercover Israeli death squad last night and shot

to death as they waited in a car outside a bakery.

Media reports describe how undercover Israeli forces sprayed the car with bullets once, then moved closer to the car and opened fire again to make sure that the men were dead.

"Such killings are a form of extra-judicial execution, which are illegal under Article Three of the Fourth Geneva Convention. They are wilful killings and thus qualify as war crimes under the same Convention," said Dr. Barghouthi.

"If Israel has credible evidence that certain individuals are involved in criminal activity, it may arrest, charge and try them in a court of law," he added, referring to two of the men's membership of the Islamic Jihad movement. "Instead, the Israeli military makes of itself, "prosecutor, judge and executioner," concluded Barghouthi.

Israeli forces stormed the town of Tuqu, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, occupied several houses on Friday morning.

Witnesses said that six Israeli military vehicles and a number of infantry soldiers entered the neighborhood near the municipal government building. Soldiers took up positions on the roofs of houses, including a house belonging to resident Jamil Al-Amour.

While on top of the houses, Israeli soldiers blew up residential water tanks, witnesses said.

Palestinian fighters confronted Israeli forces that invaded the West Bank city of Qalqilia at dawn on Friday, Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades said.

The Brigades said that their activists engaged in violent clashes with Israeli forces on Nablus Street. Israeli forces reportedly raided several private homes after invading the town from several directions.

The Al-Qassam Brigades accused Israel of attempting to transfer a policy of aggression from Gaza to the West Bank.

About 50,000 Palestinians converged on Manger Square in the center of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Thursday for the funeral of four Palestinian fighters who were assassinated by undercover Israeli forces on Wednesday night.

Mourners carried the bodies of the four men, Mohammad Shahada, Issa Marzouq, Imad Al-Kamel, and Ahmad Bilboul on their shoulders to the homes families of the dead to the central square, and then into the adjacent Omar Bin Al Khattab mosque.

Their bodies were wrapped in Hizbullah flags, in an apparent show of allegiance with the Lebanese resistance movement and political party.

Schools, shops, restaurants and other businesses shuttered their doors in observance of a general strike across the city. Bethlehem's normally bustling downtown streets were largely empty.

In a show of unity in the face of occupation, members of numerous Palestinian political factions attended the ceremony.

In speeches to the assembled crowd, representatives of the the Higher Committee of National and Islamic Forces, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Islamic Jihad denounced ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians. The Palestinian People's Party, the communists, were also present.

Kamil Hamid from the Fatah movement called for collaborators and spies who aid the Israeli occupation to be apprehended.

Across the square from the mosque, the Nativity Church sounded funeral bells.

The four Palestinian resistance activists were gunned down by Israeli special forces in their car on Wednesday night. Mohammad Shahada was a local leader in Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli peace bloc, Gush Shalom, has condemned Wednesday's assassinations of five Palestinian fighters in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Tulkarem.

An official Gush Shalom statement said that the killings prove that the Israeli government "does not want a ceasefire, but a new flareup."

"Those who sent the assassins to carry out 'liquidations' today, in Tulkarem and Bethlehem, knew what they were doing - a grave act of provocation which might blow up the serious chance which had opened up, to reach ceasefire and calm."

Israeli peace activists said the attacks shattered hopes for a ceasefire with the Palestinians: "This is a wanton, completely irresponsible act, which might return the inhabitants of Sderot, Ashkelon and Gaza back into the hell from which they momentarily escaped."

Gush Shalom said that the killings were the latest in a series of provocations this week, including the announcement of more settlement activity in the West Bank, the Israeli government boycott of Al-Jazeera, and incitements to violence by Israeli politicians and religious leaders.

Palestinians in the northern West Bank town of Attil participated in the funeral procession of activist Salih Karkur, an activist with the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, who was killed by Israeli troops on Wednesday morning.

Mourners shouted anti-Israeli slogans during the procession and called on Palestinian military groups to retaliate.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) strongly condemned the killing of four Palestinians in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, calling the assassinations "criminal."

Nimr Hammad, a political adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview with Palestine Television that the shooting of the four men demonstrates that the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations are futile. He said that such attacks will only generate further feelings of mistrust among Palestinians towards the peace process.

Hammad added that by attacking just before a tripartite US-Israeli-PA meeting this week with American General William Fraser, Israel is attempting to embarrass the PA.

Marzouq and Al-Kamel were also Islamic Jihad activists. Al-Balboul was an activist with the armed wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Brigades.

The Israeli forces entered the area between the Cinema neighborhood and Duheisha refugee camp and opened fire on a car from another civilian car. Shahada and Marzouk sat in the back seat of the car. Al-Kamel was in the driver's seat and Al-Balboul in the passenger's seat.

Witnesses confirmed that undercover Israeli forces sprayed the car with bullets once, then moved closer to the car and opened fire again, as if making sure the men were dead.

Passersby pulled the bodies of the four men from the small red car, which had been parked in front of a bakery when the Israelis opened fire. The men had been waiting for their dinner.

According to one witness, the car appeared to have been "showered with bullets."

Israeli military vehicles quickly appeared, to ferry the assassins out of Bethlehem.

The Palestinian security services said that they transferred the four dead bodies to Al-Hussein hospital in neighboring Beit Jala.

Hundreds of Palestinians converged on the hospital, expressing their deep anger

A life of resistance

Veteran activists in the armed Palestinian resistance movement, Shahada and his comrades had evaded the forces of the Israeli occupation for years.

On Wednesday the four activists were in Bethlehem meeting with other Fatah activists in preparation for Fatah's sixth movement conference.

Shahada was smiling on Christmas Eve, radiating confidence: "The Palestinian people are capable of raising the flag of liberty and completing their mission. Israel has to realize that military occupation of Palestine does not solve its problems, either now or in the future."

Asked about the US-backed peace initiative, Shahada said, "The Annapolis conference did not reach a brave level of addressing the Palestinian rights. It instead took us back to the Road Map plan trying to vision that the Palestinian problem was only one of security chaos, which every body knows is incorrect."

Finally, asked why he rejected amnesty in favor of continuing with armed struggle, he said, "It is the revolutionaries who have the right to give amnesty to the occupation, and not the opposite."

Deposed Palestinian Prime Minister Isma'il Haniyeh said on Wednesday that the ball is in Israel's court regarding a ceasefire, and that any agreement must be bilateral, simultaneous and comprehensive, including and end to the siege of the Gaza Strip.

In a televised speech during a graduation ceremony at the Islamic University in Gaza, Haniyeh called for all of the Strip's border crossings to be opened and that Palestinians' human rights be respected.

He emphasized that the news reports about Hamas seeking ceasefire in order to protect its leaders were completely false, and were meant to harm the movement's reputation, especially after the 'triumph' it achieved recently in the Gaza Strip. He was referring to a five day Israeli invasion of Gaza that failed to stop Palestinian homemade projectiles as Israeli leaders hoped.

Haniyeh pointed out that Israel and the US were attempting to uproot the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. He also saluted West Bank residents for solidarity with the Gaza Strip saying, "Your wounds are ours; your goals are ours, your destiny is ours, and so we will never separate the Gaza Strip from the rest of Palestine."

Haniyeh talked about three strategies employed by Hamas' enemies: a political strategy of demanding that Hamas comply with the international Quartet's conditions, which include changes to Hamas' charter, a military strategy which he says the Palestinian people have courageously confronted, and an economic strategy in the form of the Israeli blockade.

A Palestinian man was been killed in Gaza Strip when an unfinished explosive device detonated, and another died of his wounds sustained in Israeli bombardment a week ago.

Arif Dughmush, in his twenties, was wounded when Israeli warplanes bombarded a base belonging to the Palestinian police affiliated with the de facto government at Ash-Shati' refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. He died on Wednesday.

Separately, 25-year-old, Ayman Mansour died after being seriously wounds on Tuesday evening while preparing a bomb that exploded in his hands.

Israeli forces invaded the West Bank town of Seida, near the city of Tulkarem, on Wednesday morning, killing one fighter affiliated with the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades.

Several Israeli military vehicles and a bulldozer surrounded the home of Seida resident Mahmoud Hamad. An Islamic Jihad fighter who was in the house at the time, Salih Karkur, exchanged fire with the Israeli forces.

Eyewitnesses told Ma'an's reporter that they saw Karkur on the roof of the house shooting at the Israeli troops before the Israeli bulldozer began to demolish the building.

Ma'an's reporter watched the demolition from a nearby building. He said Karkur's body fell to the ground when the roof of the house collapsed. Israeli soldiers then shot again at Karkur's limp body, apparently to make certain he was dead.

Anger and humiliation

Following the killing, clashes erupted in the area between a crowd of stone-throwing Palestinian youths and the Israeli troops. The youths carried the Karkur's body through the town.

According to the wife of the house's owner, Umm Abdullah, Karkur had come to visit them in the morning. Shortly following Karkur's arrival, Israeli forces besieged the house and ordered the residents into the street before they chained Umm Abdullah's husband and abducted him.

She added that the Red Cross and the Palestinian Authority offered to negotiate with Karkur for his surrender in order to avoid the destruction of the house, but the Israeli troops rejected the offer.

A homemade explosive device and a Kalashnikov rifle were found near the body.

'Retaliation'

Sources in the Al-Quds Brigades said the deceased was an escort of a prominent leader of the group, Khalid Abu Sari, who was killed in Jenin months ago. The source said he also participated in the battle at Al-Ein refugee camp in Nablus in September in which an Israeli soldier was killed.

The group threatened to retaliate soon for the assassination of Karkur, who they said was one of their leaders.

Karkur was from the nearby town of Attil. He served seven years in Israeli jails.

Rafah, the Gaza Strip, 3 March - Israeli officials said today that they finished their military operation in the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli attacks continue, and we fear that Israel is still planning a major invasion. On February 29th, Israel's Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai warned of "a bigger holocaust" for Palestinians.

From February 27th - March 2nd, the Israeli army killed around 110 Palestinians in Gaza, about half of them civilians, and nearly a quarter children, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza. Hundreds were injured. Palestinians killed two Israeli soldiers and one Israeli civilian.

What is happening in Gaza hurts all Palestinians, not just Hamas. Before this assault, the Gaza Strip, with 1.5 million residents, was already like a prison under siege, with dwindling supplies of food, medicine, fuel, clean water and electricity, and growing poverty. Many families eat just one meal a day. We have no electricity for 6-12 hours daily.

On March 1st, I was home with my family in the city of Rafah at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, watching TV to see what was happening in northern Gaza. Around 10 PM we suddenly heard Israeli F16 fighter planes overhead. I said to my mom, something is going to happen. The sound of the F16s grew louder. Then we heard very loud rocket explosions.

My sister ran crying, saying, it's close. My mom was cut in the hand trying to prevent glass from hitting her head. Many of our windows were broken. We ran outside because the electricity went off. My father said it's safer in the street. At least we can see where the rockets are going and where to go.

Four Israeli rockets hit the mosque 150 meters away, killing six civilians and injuring 30. One of those killed was my 30 year old cousin Samer. Samer, a policeman with Fateh's Palestinian Authority, was married with a young daughter.

The latest Israeli attacks began on February 27th when Israel assassinated five Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Palestinian fighters responded by firing rockets into Israel, killing an Israeli teacher in Sderot. Israel fired more rockets, and invaded.

Most deaths were in northern Gaza. When I visited there on February 29th, a mother from Beit Lahia explained what happened the day before, "My sons went to the playground to play football, and I said to myself they will be safe." She completed the story crying, "but they weren't safe anywhere. One of them was killed and the second was injured." I began to cry also as she asked, "My son, why have you left me?" Twelve year-old Omar Dardona died immediately, and eight year-old Ali Dardona died on March 1st.

Another woman there told me, "I didn't believe there were tanks in the neighborhood, and I looked through the door's peephole, and there really were. I didn't know what to do. I saw on TV yesterday eight children were killed, and I was thinking of my children. My husband climbed over our house wall and I passed the kids one by one to their father. They crossed the street and reached their grandfather's house safely."

Some Palestinians see shooting rockets into Israel as the only way to respond to continued Israeli attacks that have killed so many civilians and children, the only way to protest with a loud voice. Israel besieged Gaza after Hamas won the Palestinian elections in January, 2006, and killed 823 Gazans in 2006 and 2007, according to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem. Hamas has repeatedly offered a truce, but the Israeli government has rejected those offers. Fourteen Israelis have been killed by rockets from Gaza since 2000.

It seems like the world knows that Israelis in Sderot are scared because of rockets from Gaza, but they don't see what the Israeli army is doing. I feel sometimes like people in Gaza are in a different world.

The Israeli army bulldozed and destroyed our family home in 2004. In 2006 they bombed a house 40 meters from where we were living. Saturday night they could have hit our house. I fight hard to keep hate from my heart, but I get scared sometimes that it will overcome my resistance. I hope that I can continue to win this struggle.

Violence and death bring more violence and death. Hope brings more hope. Despite everything, children in Rafah tell me they hope to play, have fun, travel, and meet Egyptian children. It is these children's dreams that renew my spirit.

***Fida Qishta, an educator and journalist, is the founder and manager of the Lifemakers Center, which serves 70 children aged 6-18 in Rafah.

Israeli forces stormed the northern West Bank town of Azzun, near the city of Qalqilia, on Monday evening and a imposed curfew, eyewitnesses told Ma'an.

According to the witnesses, several Israeli military vehicles invaded the town amidst heavy fire and sonic bombs before ordering the residents into their homes through loudspeakers.

Ma'an received a telephone call from a spokesperson of Fatah's armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, in Azzun claiming responsibility for opening fire and hurling a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli settler's car travelling near the town.

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is close at hand, and its benefits can already be felt in the current halt to hostilities in Gaza, a reliable source with knowledge of the behind-the-scenes negotiations told Ma'an on Tuesday.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the success of this ceasefire is based on firm guarantees that will end weeks and months of violence.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also announced an imminent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, according to which Israel will stop targeting Hamas leaders for assassination in exchange for Hamas stopping the launch of homemade projectiles at Israel.

However, both Hamas and Israel have publicly denied the ceasefire.

The sources said that Hamas has a clear vision for a ceasefire that includes halting Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and lifting the crippling blockade, while the Egyptians propose easing the siege as an initial step, rather than completely lifting it immediately.

Easing the siege, according to Ma'an's source, will be reopening the Rafah crossing point in accordance with the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA). Egypt believes it cannot disregard the treaty, the source said.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions had called for scrapping the AMA, which gives Israel a degree of control at the crossing, in favor of an arrangement that gives Palestinian and Egyptian authorities complete control.

At the current talks in Egypt, Hamas has expressed its consent to have the Rafah crossing to be operated by Presidential Guards loyal to Abbas and European monitors, as called for under the AMA.

A 'package of solutions'

The source added that Egypt proposed a package of solutions that includes talks between Hamas and Fatah aimed at Palestinian national reconciliation, a ceasefire with Israel, and reopening talks on the issue of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Negotiations about Shalit had been suspended because, Palestinian officials said, Israel refused to release long term Palestinian prisoners.

However, Egypt's main concern at this stage, the source said, is the ceasefire with Israel.

According to the source, Hamas stipulated that Egypt guarantees protection for Hamas' leaders before ceasefire. They also preferred that the cease fire be under international supervision.

The source also revealed that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exerted pressure on Israel to practice self-restraint while Egypt exerted pressure on Hamas for the same purpose. The source also stated that Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian factions did not oppose the proposed ceasefire.